The first entry in the Books of the Customs
House at Campbeltown is dated 6th June 1739 and
notes the presence in the port of the ship
"Thistle" of Saltcoats, (Robert Brown,
Master) to take aboard emigrants for Cape Fair in
America (1).

This reference marks the first organised
emigration from Kintyre to North America and the
first trickle in what eventually became a torrent
of Highland emigration to North Carolina.

Prior to the Act of Union in 1707 the American
Colonies were English and it was extremely
difficult for Scots to trade or settle there.

It took a man of the calibre of
"Great" Daniel Campbell of Shawfield
(1670-1753) the son of Walter, Captain of
Skipness, and the prototype of the Scottish
merchant adventurer, to overcome these
difficulties. He amassed a fortune in the
Virginia trade while still in his twenties.

But he was exceptional, and most Scots who set
foot in North America prior to the Union of 1707
did not go willingly. Cromwell transported Scots
prisoners to the colonies after Dunbar and the
unsuccessful uprising of the Earl of Argyle in
1685 resulted in the transportation of a number
of Campbeltown and Kintyre lads to New England
(2).

Amongst the banished was the Rev. David Simson
of Killean and Southend who was exiled to New
Jersey where he died in 1695 "steadfast in
the faith" (3). It is interesting to note
that his son David, Minister of Kilchoman in
Islay and also of Southend, married Isabel,
sister of Hector Macneal of Losset who was father
of Dugald Macneal and father in law of ColI
McAllister two of the 1739 leaders while his
grandson Rev. Neil Simpson of Gigha married Mary
daughter of Malcolm McNeill in Skeroblin - a
family well represented among early settlers,
(and who were differentiated in North Carolina by
the title of the Scribblin McNeills).

A year before the emigration to North
Carolina, Lachlan Campbell a prominent tacksman
in Islay had settled thirty families in New York
state in response to an advertisement offering
1000 acres to Protestant families who settled
there. He took more across in 1739 and 1740
settling 423 persons in all. It appears,
according to a note by the late Andrew McKerral,
that Kintyre families, including some recently
settled Lowlanders; were included in his parties.
The promises made to Lachlan do not seem to have
been kept. He returned to Scotland in 1745 to
fight for King George and thereafter returned to
America, where he died, it is said, of a broken
heart.

The first indication of the identity of the
leaders of the 1739 venture is given in a
petition presented by Dugald Macneal and ColI
McAllister to the General Assembly of North
Carolina in 1740 seeking financial assistance for
certain "Scotch Gentlemen and several poor
people brought into this province". Tax
remissions were given for ten years and the Upper
House proposed that "£1000 be given to
Duncan Campbell, Dugald McNeal, Daniel McNeal,
ColI McAllister and Neal McNeal, Esqrs to be by
them distributed among the several
families". The Lower House deferred payment
but in June 1740 grants of land were given to
these 5 and some 17 others out of some 80 or so
heads of families in the 350 emigrants. The
leaders appear to have claimed and been given
large plots on the basis of the number of
followers they had brought. Duncan Campbell for
instance was given a total of 2643 acres.

At the same time all five were appointed
magistrates for Bladen County. (4)

There is a tradition that these settlers found
relatives already settled and that some had been
there since 1729 but there is not a scrap of
proof and the legend perpetuated by John McLean
that Hector McNeill of the Bluff was there to
greet them is not borne out by fact. (5)
Hector's father Neil was one of the
leaders.

Most commentators have been satisfied that
American emigration was led by tacksmen and was
due to the collapse of the tacksman system and
later to the clearances. While these
considerations undoubtedly apply after 1745 it
would seem that they have no relevance to 1739.
All the leaders were apparently landowners and
men of substance. Their move was apparently
engendered by disillusionment with the Union, a
desire for improvement and the hope of more
prosperity than they could expect in the rather
forlorn Scotland of the immediate post-Union
period.

All were related directly or indirectly, by
blood or by marriage to Hector Macneal the First
of Losset. (6)

Hector's father Lachlan Macneill Buie of
Tirfergus (1611-1695) an elder of the Highland
Church must have been a very remarkable man. He
was the son, presumably, of Neil Buie McNeill who
in 1594 witnessed a Bond of Manrent between
Kintyre McNeills and Sir James McDonald of
Kintyre and who in 1609 was in possession of
Machrihanish and other lands. Lachlan seems to
have escaped completely unscathed from the
dynastic and religious wars which devastated
Kintyre during most of his life. By his first
marriage with Mary McNeill of Carskiey he had
four sons and two daughters and by his second
marriage with Margaret McAllister of Tore he had
four sons and four daughters. Three of his sons
settled in the North of Ireland. The remaining
five became lairds respectively of Tirfergus,
Losset, Ugadale (through marriage) Kilchrist and
Machrihanish in Kintyre. Hector of Losset,
Lachlan's fifth son, who died before
September 1730, was survived by his second wife
Florence Campbell who was a sister of Duncan
Campbell of Kilduskland, Ardrishaig, the first of
the pioneers to be named in the North Carolina
Assembly resolution. Florence must have been a
considerable person herself, as she had already
buried Lachlan McLachlan of McLachlan and
McDonald of Largie, her two previous husbands and
chiefs of two of the oldest families in
Argyll.

Hector's heir was his unmarried son
Dugald, the second named Scotch Gentleman, who
prior to 1739 raised as much as he could on the
security of Losset presumably to finance the
venture.

ColI McAllister, the fourth named was fiar of
Ballinakill. He was closely related to the
McAllisters of Loup. His father, Ronald in
Dunskeig, who acquired Ballinakill in 1717 is
buried in Clachan, his name being added to a
mediaeval stone presumably erected to an
ancestor. (5) ColI, too, sold his lands to
finance the venture. His wife Janet McNeill who
accompanied him was Dugald Lossett's
sister.

Neil McNeill of Ardelay in Gigha is the fifth
named. His wife was Grizel Campbell, a cousin of
Kilduskland and of Hector's widow, while his
daughter Florence married Alexander, ColI's
youngest son and Dugald Lossett's nephew. He
sold Ardelay in 1738 to John McLachlan in Daill
in Islay. (7)

Daniel (or Donald) McNeill (the third
mentioned) is designed in contemporary letters as
"of Taynish". He was the second son of
the marriage between Neil McNeil of Taynish and
Elizabeth Campbell, daughter of Mr. Alexander
Campbell, Advocate, Commissar of the Isles. Like
Duncan Campbell and Neil McNeill he was a direct
descendant of Patrick Dow, grandson of the third
laird of Auchinbreck, and was related to Hector
of Losset.

Lachlan of Tirfergus' fourth son Torquil
acquired Ugadale by marriage with the heiress
Barbara McKay, whose family according to some
authorities preceded Somerled in Kintyre and who
held their lands under a charter of Robert Bruce.
On Torquil's death he was succeeded by his
son Neil who stabilised the spelling of the
family name in his branch as McNeal, later
extended to MacNeal.

Neil, known as "the Baron" took over
the Bonds on Losset granted by his cousin Dugald
and eventually acquired that estate where he
normally resided, so founding the family of
MacNeal of Ugadale and Losset.

Neil had a brother, Captain Hector Macneal, a
merchant shipmaster, who for at least twenty five
years sailed and traded between Boston, the West
Indies, the African Coast and Bristol. The
correspondence between the brothers sheds some
light on the origins of the Carolina
Settlement.

Hector's letters show him to have been a
steady, sober, hard working master mariner of a
type that was to become very familiar in the
succeeding century. He married in 1732 Elizabeth,
daughter of a Boston merchant, Cuthbert Campbell,
who later moved to Rhode Island, and who was
probably identical with the citizen described in
1714 as having lately possessed a house in New
Street, Campbeltown. Hector was constantly
meeting Scots relatives and acquaintances on his
travels particularly in the West Indies and he
even found a cousin who was surgeon in a Swedish
ship he came across in Cadiz. In 1731 he wrote
that "it is reported that Archie Caradele is
living in New York and is in a very good
way".

Hector may have contributed to the idea of an
American settlement when he wrote from Boston on
4th May 1736 as follows,

"I should be glad to know if I could have
any encouragement to gett 200 or 250 passengers
from the North of Ireland to New England, who
could pay for their passage if a ship was sent
there to take them abroad. You may easily be
informed of this from our friends in Belfast.
No doubt the Highlands could also spare many
who if industrious and versed in husbandry
might with little charge procure lands capable
of improvement………. About ten
years ago some families that came to New
England from the North of Ireland settled
themselves in a place which they now call
Nuttfield. They being joined by others, have
improved so much in linens and woollens that
they not only supply themselves but a great
part of the Country……….. and
have also vastly improved their lands".

On 27th September 1737 he was thanking Neil
for having taken so much trouble about
passengers, and in November returned to the same
theme enquiring -

"Whether I can be of service of a freight
with passengers for America next Spring."

He could take advantage of a voyage to the
North of Ireland for such emigrants to visit his
relatives in Kintyre. He repeated his suggestion
in a letter from Bristol on 13th January
1738.

His relatives had a different idea. They
favoured North Carolina rather than New England
and asked Captain Hector for his advice in this
connection. He gave it on 2nd July 1738.

"You mentioned several of our relations
that designed to come to America and settle in
North Carolina. I wish they may have the
desired success but I assure you that Province
is remarkable for knaves and villains of all
sorts. I was once in North Carolina and found
the people of that country to be the worst sett
of men I ever knew. However as Neill Du of
Gigha has been there no doubt he is a better
judge of both people and country than I can
be."

Neill Du was of course Neil of Ardelay and he
evidently reassured the family sufficiently for
the North Carolina venture to proceed.

The "Thistle" probably landed her
passengers at Brunswick, N.C. as the river port
of Wilmington had not then been developed They
were then faced with a ninety mile journey by
canoe or lighter to the area that was later named
Cross Creek in Bladen County on the Upper Cape
Fear River where most of the original land grants
were situated. The journey took at least a
week.

In 1760 the Colonial Assembly appointed a
committee to determine the location of a trading
town on the Upper Cape Fear River and in 1762 the
town of Campbellton was chartered with a county
court house to be erected there. It never
developed to the extent that its founders hoped
and in 1778 the court house moved to Cross Creek,
which was renamed Upper Campbellton. In 1783 in
honour of the French Marshal Lafayette both
settlements were incorporated in the new and now
flourishing city of Fayetteville. While there is
no real evidence, and various reasons have been
advanced for the original choice of name,
Campbeltonians will be happy to approve the
theory that it was named after their home
town.

Unfortunately the old Bladen Court House was
burnt down with the destruction of records prior
to the erection of Cumberland County in 1754 so
that it is not always possible to identify other
settlers or to tell exactly what happened to
them.

Dugald Macneal, unmarried and without issue
was dead by 1741. His plantation, named Port
Neill, the same as an Irish cousin's estate,
was not finally disposed of till 30 years after
his death

ColI McAllister probably died about 1745. The
fate of his two sons is however very well
documented. Hector, the older returned to
Scotland. He married and resided in Arran where
his daughter Mary married Neil Shannon 4th of
Lephinstrath (8) who joined her in the McAllister
home at Monyquill and later Springbank,
Arran.

A tragic letter dated from Monyquill, May 31,
1774 tells of the loss of his only son
Charles.

"He and one of his sisters in the month of
February was going to Islay to see their
friends there and by some fatal accident he
fell overboard and was lost between Arran and
Kantyre. In two days thereafter his remains was
found accidentally by fishermen on Island
Davarr in the mouth of Campbeltown harbour
which we was acquanited of by Express and was
the first account of the fatal misfortune when
we believed vessel and all on board perished
till ane express from Islay in two days
thereafter brought an account all was safe but
my son."

There is a persistent tradition in Arran that
the captain of the vessel, a Revenue Cutter, had
made unwelcome advances to young Charles'
sister and when he intervened the captain knocked
him overboard.

In the same letter Hector makes some acid
comments which gives credence to the belief that
he was an ardent Jacobite, or at least
"agin' the Government".

"In an oppressed country reduced to
beggary I shall long day and night till I get
clear of it………. I believe dr
Brother I shall never think myself happy this
side of time until I see you and my friends in
Carolina where I hope to be while I live to
breath the air of liberty."

Among the eight persons reported by the
Surveyor of Customs in Campbeltown as having been
concerned in the rebellion of 1745/6 was James
Bain Fullarton, described as Merchant, Glencloy,
Arran and who was Hector's father-in-law and
Hector McAllister, also Merchant of Glencloy who
was presumably the same Hector (9) .

ColI's younger son Alexander was an
outstanding citizen. he was a founder elder of
Bluff Church in which the first minister was the
Campbeltonian James Campbell. He was Colonel of
the Cumberland County Militia in the Revolution,
a member of important state Committees and a
member of the North Carolina Senate. His
correspondence (written from his estate of
Barmore named after the home of the McAlisters of
Tarbert) with his chief Angus McAllister of Loup,
his brother Hector and others in Scotland show
him to have been a perfervid American
patriot.

In 1770 he writes the Laird of Loup.

"As for the peoples notion of this place
they see but through a dark glass. If they
could see clearly not one poor man would stay
in that country where they are always kept at
hard labour and never get ahead. This is the
best poor man's country I have heard
of."

There is also a constant reference to new
emigrants mainly from the Clachan district and
enquiries as to the welfare of others.

He has many descendants in the United States
who have distinguished themselves in public life.
His first wife was Flora, Ardelay's daughter,
and his second Jean Colvin daughter of Alexander
Colvin, certainly of Campbeltown. His sister
Isabella married Ferquhard Campbell who was a
very prominent citizen before during and after
the Revolution and who like his brother-in-law
Alexander McAllister was one of the first elders
of Bluff Church. They also have numerous
descendants.

Neil du of Ardelay also succeeded in his new
country. His son, Hector McNeill of the Bluff,
who married ColI McAllister's daughter Mary,
was the first Sheriff of the newly created
Cumberland County in 1754. Another son Duncan
married Loveday daughter of the Rev. James
Campbell and they left many descendants. Neil
himself was dead by 1749.

Daniel of Taynish also prospered. Of his
numerous stock the best known, in this country at
least, is "Whistler's mother" who
in reproduced form graced many a late Victorian
parlour in company with the companion portrait of
Thomas Carlyle painted by her son James McNeill
Whistler. Daniel survived till at least 1774.

Duncan Campbell of Kilduskland did not remain
long in the Colonies. He returned to Scotland and
in 1756 he sold his American Estates through his
Attorney, "Bluff" Hector McNeill.

He appeared before the Presbytery of Inveraray
on 3rd November 1741 to appeal for the provision
of a Gaelic speaking minister for the colony but
was unsuccessful since this want was not met till
the arrival of James Campbell in 1758.

It would seem that the Thistle did not sail
direct from Campbeltown to America. It may be
deduced that Dugald of Losset with his followers
boarded her there and that she then called at
Gigha to pick up the others.

This is suggested by the fact that Kilduskland
executed on 28th June 1739 a Factory &
Commission in favour of Dugald McTavish Yr. of
Dunardry (10). The Deed was signed at Ardminish,
Gigha (the home of Daniel Taynish) and narrates
that the granter "is about to leave the
Kingdom for Cape Fair in America".

Corroboration is to be found in a letter
written by Alexr. McAlister of Cour on 17th
August 1770 to Alexander in America.

"I was an entire stranger to you till our
friend John Currie arrived at America tho'
I saw you take ship at Giga".

There are constant reminders of the importance
and relative mobility of sea travel when there
were no adequate roads. Hector McAlister in 1754
described one of his frustrated attempts to
return to Carolina. He had tentatively arranged
with the "Merchants of Campbeltown" to
take himself with twenty or thirty families but
when he got there he found that only two or three
days before they hart contracted to take a
shipload to Philadelphia (Was Revd. James
Campbell among them?). He immediately sent by sea
to Jura where he understood an arrangement had
fallen through but found he had been misinformed
and that the ship had already been filled with
emigrants. His disappointment was greater in that
he had hoped to bring a Minister, Mr. Neil McLeod
- a good preacher, master of the Highland tongue
and "a very popular man amongst the
commonality".

Family correspondence did not continue beyond
the 1830's but the descendants of these
pioneers have never forgotten their Highland
ancestry. Many still return on visits to this
country and show a very great interest in their
roots.

"For still the blood is strong, the heart
is Highland".

NOTES:
(1) The old customs records appear to be lost
but fortunately the late Father Webb made
extensive notes.
(2) New England Historical & Genealogical
Register Vol CXlV 1960 (KAS 372).
(3) Andrew McKerral - Kintyre in the Seventeenth
Century Edinburgh 1948.
(4) The Highland Scots in North Carolina
1732-1776 by Duane Meyer, Univ. N.C. Press 1961.
(5) "An Historical Account of the Settlement
of Scotch Highlanders in America prior to the
Peace of 1783" - John Patterson McLean
Cleveland and Glasgow 1900 Reprinted Baltimore
1960.
(6) (a) The MS Genealogy of the descendants of
Lachlan Macneal of Tirfergus and (b) The
Campbells of Auchinbreck, S.H.S. Highland
Miscellany Vol IV.
(7) Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments -
Kintyre Inventory 1971 p. 109.
(8) See K.A.S Magazine No. 11 p. 3 "The
Shannons of Lephenstrath".
(9) Mr. Ian McDonald points out that the same
witnesses who were to speak against Hector were
also to condemn Ja. McDonald, Sea Coast Trader,
Beallacheyran in Kintyre whom Ian tells me was a
notorious smuggler. Perhaps the Customs Officers
were killing two birds with the one stone.
(10) Dugald was arrested in 1746 on being found
to have been in treasonable correspondence with
the aged Sir James Campbell of Auchinbreck. It is
of interest that John McLachlan, who purchased
Ardelay in 1738 was, apart from Largie, the only
Kintyre landowner on the Government's list of
suspects. Was the emigration at least partly due
to frustrated Jacobitism?

Acknowledgements are due to Lt. Col. Hector
Macneal of Losset C.B.E., for making available an
eighteenth century family genealogy and family
correspondence, and to Mr. William C. Fields of
Fayetteville for stimulating and encouraging the
research and for making available the McAllister
correspondence and the fruits of his own
research. I am also indebted to Messrs. Murdo
McDonald, County Archivist and Ian McDonald,
Clachan, for advice and suggestions.

Copyright belongs to the authors unless
otherwise stated.

The Kintyre Antiquarian & Natural History
Society was founded in 1921 and exists to promote
the history, archaeology and natural history of
the peninsula.
It organises monthly lectures in Campbeltown -
from October to April, annually - and has
published its journal, 'The Kintyre
Magazine', twice a year since 1977, in
addition to a range of books on diverse subjects
relating to Kintyre.